Good parallel speedup with ABDADA and cutoff checks

[TomKerrigan]

I suppose it costs less if you already own a bunch of components.

Here's the breakdown on the computer I bought:

- $150 for the CPUs from eBay, includes shipping
- $399 for a Dell T5610, includes motherboard, coolers, 32GB RAM, power supply, case, DVD-RW drive, and low-end Nvidia Quadro
- ~$65 for a cheap SSD, USB wifi adapter, and DisplayPort cable from Amazon

Total cost ended up at $615 including shipping, etc. with no reused components.

If I were to buy the same thing now, it would end up being significantly more expensive, considering the cheapest Dell T5610 on eBay is $750...

I thought every one has some desktop laying around, or would be upgrading an existing desktop machine.
Big advantage is really that modern air coolers (and I am not talking Noctua's that cost 70-80$ a piece) but basic CoolMaster 212EVOs are more than adequate for cooling down non-OC Xeons and are even on full load almost inaudible. Plus you buy modern mainboard, so you get all the nice features, can plug in any GPU, have best PCIe performance, have bunch of USB3.0, most modern BIOS, organize your RAID as you wish, it is extremely power-efficient (much better than old server-box MBs), Xeons at idle are 20W each, MB is additional 30W and GPU is 20W (and I can even work without GPU, in case I really don't need it). Plus it works perfect on Win7/10 and you don't need server OS.

I bought a Mac Mini as my main computer back in 2012. It's tiny, inaudible, fairly powerful (quad-core Ivy Bridge that can sustain 3.1GHz), uses only 15W when idle, and runs OS X. Haven't looked back.

When I bought the Mac Mini, I happily dumped all my computer junk in some boxes and took it to the local computer recycling place. All the old cases, power supplies with outdated connectors, CPU fans for sockets that nobody uses anymore, 3.5" hard drives, graphics cards that were current when people still played Quake 3 Arena, etc. It was probably 150 lbs of stuff in total and I was extremely happy to be rid of it all.

The Dell I bought is a great computer and it was released in late 2013, so it's current as of ~3 years ago, which really doesn't seem like that long ago. It has dual PCIe 3.0 x16 slots = can handle dual graphics cards no problem, 825W 80 PLUS gold power supply, only uses 70W idle, has a bunch of USB 3.0 ports, and is fairly quiet.

I use my Mac Mini to ssh and sftp into it. Sometimes I wish I could get OS X running on it and use it as my main computer, but then I remember how much I hate being able to hear my computer and it'd be a waste of electricity too.

[Milos]

The Dell I bought is a great computer and it was released in late 2013, so it's current as of ~3 years ago, which really doesn't seem like that long ago. It has dual PCIe 3.0 x16 slots = can handle dual graphics cards no problem, 825W 80 PLUS gold power supply, only uses 70W idle, has a bunch of USB 3.0 ports, and is fairly quiet.

I use my Mac Mini to ssh and sftp into it. Sometimes I wish I could get OS X running on it and use it as my main computer, but then I remember how much I hate being able to hear my computer and it'd be a waste of electricity too.

Yea seams T5610 is very much standard ATX case with standard Intel C602 MB E-ATX format with Dell branding on it (so in essence quite modern). So all in all very similar to what I built. But first thing I would do is replace those dreadful Dell coolers for modern coolers with larger sinks and proper 120mm fans. In my config MB is ATX meaning CPUs are much closer and I don't use push-pull config for coolers instead I pipeline them. 212EVOs are high enough to go over memory (maybe you'd need to remove that useless memory heatsink panel).
In my config 212EVOs never go over 700RPM under full load, and CPU temp never goes over 50C.

[TomKerrigan]

The Dell I bought is a great computer and it was released in late 2013, so it's current as of ~3 years ago, which really doesn't seem like that long ago. It has dual PCIe 3.0 x16 slots = can handle dual graphics cards no problem, 825W 80 PLUS gold power supply, only uses 70W idle, has a bunch of USB 3.0 ports, and is fairly quiet.

I use my Mac Mini to ssh and sftp into it. Sometimes I wish I could get OS X running on it and use it as my main computer, but then I remember how much I hate being able to hear my computer and it'd be a waste of electricity too.

Yea seams T5610 is very much standard ATX case with standard Intel C602 MB E-ATX format with Dell branding on it (so in essence quite modern). So all in all very similar to what I built. But first thing I would do is replace those dreadful Dell coolers for modern coolers with larger sinks and proper 120mm fans. In my config MB is ATX meaning CPUs are much closer and I don't use push-pull config for coolers instead I pipeline them. 212EVOs are high enough to go over memory (maybe you'd need to remove that useless memory heatsink panel).
In my config 212EVOs never go over 700RPM under full load, and CPU temp never goes over 50C.

Sounds good. If I were to use the Dell as my main computer, I would probably do that. As is, I keep it upstairs and remote into it from my study downstairs, so I wouldn't be able to hear it at all even if it was twice as loud. So no point to modding it to make it quieter!

(That being said, the 1U server I had before the Dell was definitely audible even when idle, located on a different floor, and with two doors closed in between me and it. "Loud" does not accurately describe that thing!)

I used to be pretty into making my home-built PCs quiet. I remember it was a sometimes-entertaining, mostly-frustrating hobby. I spent hours reading Silent PC Review. The last computer I built had an expensive SeaSonic X-series power supply that could turn off its fan, temperatures permitting. (And it was efficient enough that I actually never saw the fan turn on.) I switched to SSDs as soon as it was remotely practical in order to get rid of hard drive noise. I had a Scythe Mugen cooler with a Zalman FanMate to get the RPMs down to around 500 (IIRC). Unfortunately I also had to have an exhaust fan to keep my motherboard temperatures down. I believe that was a Nexus, also voltage regulated, on rubber grommets. The whole setup was extremely quiet. You could still hear it a bit in the middle of the night but the noise wasn't offensive.

The Mac Mini is still much quieter though.